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Sustainable September

Media Release: South Melbourne Market Shines a Spotlight on Sustainability this September

A month-long festival packed with fun for the kids, learning for adults and ideas to inspire your family to shop and live more sustainably is coming to South Melbourne Market this spring. Sustainable September will showcase the wide array of sustainability practices at the Market and include kids’ activities, workshops, tours, a Sustainability Circuit and a special Turning Trash to Treasure exhibition.

Try your hand at fermenting or take a class with Leftover Lovers and learn to use what you’ve got on hand to make delicious meals. The kids can learn to upcycle using old denim to make bags, or join in sustainable story time. The Sustainability Circuit will take you on a journey through the Market and show you how to shop more sustainably and discover the Market traders, such as Frankie’s Story, who are leading the way by stocking only ethically or environmentally sound fashion labels.

The Turning Trash to Treasure exhibition asks local artists to create a piece of art from Market waste, with the final pieces on display in the Market’s SO:ME Space from Wednesday 20 September – Sunday 1 October. The idea arose from artist Kim Simon, who used more than 7,000 oyster shells sourced from the Market’s Aptus Seafood to create a sculpture titled The World is Your Oyster.

“As well as highlighting our waste reduction initiatives, the exhibition will show how we can find beauty and value in what others discard – finding treasure in the trash – as well as promoting local artists and the concept of upcycling to our Market audience,” South Melbourne Market General Manager Ross Williamson said. Submissions are now open for artists and will close Friday 28 July. A tour for artists seeking inspiration will be held on Saturday 22 July at 11am.

City of Port Phillip Mayor Cr Bernadene Voss said: “Sustainability is something we are very passionate about and we’re striving to reduce our environmental footprint and create a sustainable Market for the next generation.” In line with its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use, Council has several sustainability initiatives in place at the Market. Some of these include food rescue, water recycling, solar PV and a progressive landfill diversion strategy with up to 90 per cent of organic waste volume reduced.

“Our Market is really closing the loop with its waste strategies and so it’s an exciting time,” Cr Voss said. “Green waste is now converted into an organic compost (vermicompost) which is returned to the Market and sold as a garden product called Market Magic. All other food and organic waste is dehydrated onsite in a 1000L Eco Guardians GaiaRecycle machine and will soon be available as Soil Food, a fertiliser with similar properties to blood and bone.”

Market Management is supportive of #BantheBag and is currently asking the community whether it supports banning single use plastic bags at the Market via an online survey.